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Research Coins: Affiliated Auction

 
Sale: Nomos 5, Lot: 261. Estimate CHF1500. 
Closing Date: Monday, 24 October 2011. 
Sold For CHF1800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Constantine V Copronymus. 741-775. Solidus (Gold, 4.34 g 6), c. 741-751. d LEON P A MUL’ Crowned bust of Leo III facing, wearing chlamys and holding a cross potent on base in his right hand and an akakia in his left. Rev. d N CONSTANTIUS’ (sic) Crowned bust of Constantine V facing, wearing chlamys and holding a cross potent on base in his right hand and an akakia in his left. DOC 1d var. A very sharp and clear example, with some very slight doubling. Good extremely fine.


A remarkably fine piece. The reverse legend is a fascinating die cutter’s error. The Isaurian emperors were iconoclasts and, thus, refused to use the image of Christ on their coins and replace it by their own ancestors - in this case the emperor’s father. Constantine V was even more fervently iconoclast than his father, in part because of thu usurpation of Artavasdus, which took place from 742-743, and was partly impelled by iconodule sentiments. Otherwise he was a very active emperor and was militarily successful.